eburnside
Member
I don't post a lot but thought this might be helpful.
Kicking myself for not taking pics while doing it, but I'll do my best via text.
The keypad on my '04 expy wasn't working anymore. The kids use it all the time to get in and out in the driveway and after breaking we really missed it so it's been on my honey-do list for a while.
The symptoms were:
1) I could push buttons [1|2], [3|4], [5|6], & [9|0] and the backlight would kick on.
2) If I pushed button [7|8] it would not kick on at all.
I thus suspected corrosion on the inside of the rubber buttons. I've run into it a few times before with TV remotes and video game controllers.
So the key here is that I was able to tell it was the rubber buttons and not something else because some worked (the backlight came on when pressed) and some didn't. If you push all five and no backlight comes on at all, either all five are bad (unlikely) or your problem is somewhere else.
Unfortunately on the '04 it is NOT a simple "pop it out" keypad like the one found in this video:
Instead, it is nestled deep inside the black side panel which cannot be removed without removing the mirror, which in turn requires removing the inside door panel. Here is the repair step by step:
Hindsight being 20/20, I should have made a video or taken some pictures along the way, but hopefully this is descriptive enough to help the next person that comes along and doesn't want to pay the dealership to replace the whole keypad for them.
Kicking myself for not taking pics while doing it, but I'll do my best via text.
The keypad on my '04 expy wasn't working anymore. The kids use it all the time to get in and out in the driveway and after breaking we really missed it so it's been on my honey-do list for a while.
The symptoms were:
1) I could push buttons [1|2], [3|4], [5|6], & [9|0] and the backlight would kick on.
2) If I pushed button [7|8] it would not kick on at all.
I thus suspected corrosion on the inside of the rubber buttons. I've run into it a few times before with TV remotes and video game controllers.
So the key here is that I was able to tell it was the rubber buttons and not something else because some worked (the backlight came on when pressed) and some didn't. If you push all five and no backlight comes on at all, either all five are bad (unlikely) or your problem is somewhere else.
Unfortunately on the '04 it is NOT a simple "pop it out" keypad like the one found in this video:
Instead, it is nestled deep inside the black side panel which cannot be removed without removing the mirror, which in turn requires removing the inside door panel. Here is the repair step by step:
- Remove the interior door panel (good video from the passenger side perspective here: )
- Open the door, roll down the window, and lock the door. (to make the black push-down lock recess itself)
- Remove one screw recessed in the top left just around the corner from the black lock button. (the one that pops up and down.)
- Remove two screws underneath a small pop-out panel just underneath the door handle. Gently pop out the oval shaped panel to reveal the screws.
- Remove two screws visible along the bottom of the door
- Then you have to pop off the cover for the door handle
- Then you have to pop off the memory/windows/locks control panel and disconnect it. (I took a picture to make sure I could put all the wires back later.)
- Then you have to pop out the top corner of the mirror control interface. I found a small indentation on the back (hinge) side that seemed to be put there for this.
- Be careful because the mirror control interface is still wired in but at this point the door is only held in place by the plastic hooked into the metal door frame so it should lift up about 1/2" and then pull out.
- Unplug the mirror control interface and you can set the door panel aside.
- Loosen the side view mirror.
- There are three bolts in a triangle set back inside the door that you can get to from the inside.
- First I had to gently peel back the glued in weather/sound proofing layer from around the back of the mirror bracket.
- I removed the bottom two, being extremely careful not to drop them down inside the door.
- I loosened the top one until it was just about to come off.
- Then from the outside of the door, I pulled the mirror back as far as I could get it and stuffed a rolled up rag inside the gap to keep it pulled back.
- Pop up the black panel that runs the length of the door just under the window
- Be careful as you work on this panel, the wiring for the keypad runs through the door behind the mirror, then the length of this panel along the top from left to right.
- You do not need to completely remove it, you just need to pop up the right-hand side enough to expose the back of the keypad from the inside of the door.
- Popping it out was trickier than expected, it doesn't pop out, it pops up. You have to gently pry it upwards, in the direction the window goes when you roll it up.
- You will now be able to see the back of the keypad assembly. It is made up of four parts, all interlocked together. In order from outside-in: (1) the door panel itself, which it all snaps into. (2) A plastic cover with holes in it for the rubber buttons. (3) the rubber buttons, molded as one piece. (4) the wired-in enclosure with circuit board. You need to gain access to the rubber buttons.
- Looking at the back of it when it is snapped into place, you can see there are gaps in the "box" that surrounds it. Only the three outer snaps (top/side/bottom) are holding it into place on each side. The inner snaps are what holds the rubber keypad into the unit after you pop it out
- Carefully pop out one side, then the other. It took a lot of patience not to damage anything but I used two small flat-head jewelers screwdrivers while simultaneously trying to apply pressure to the button from the outside to pop it inward.
- Now you should be able to twist it around to where you can see the front of it with the black plastic surrounding the rubber buttons. Twist it around so that the buttons are facing upward, toward the sky and keep it that general direction while you pry off the black plastic cover by releasing the snaps on the top and bottom, again with the jewelers screwdrivers.
- This is where I messed up by not anticipating properly. The rubber buttons have these tiny (tiny!) copper plates glued to them, and part of why my buttons weren't working was because the copper plates on my [7|8] button had separated from the rubber. Naturally when I pulled out the rubber pad, they all fell down inside the door. (!!) So by keeping the enclosure facing up as you pull it out, (with the buttons readable from above) anything that wants to fall out should instead just sit inside the enclosure.
- Once I pulled the rubber keys out, it was a clear cut case of oxidation causing the buttons to stop working. Having done repair like this many times before I already had "deoxit" contact cleaner handy. I'm sure any contact cleaner will do, or in a pinch, rubbing alcohol. I grabbed a Q-tip, doused it in contact cleaner, and cleaned up both the circuit board contacts and the rubber button contacts. (the ones that still remained, as I'd lost 3 in opening it.) My Q-tip ended up pretty black, and the contacts ended up a nice shiny shade of copper.
- Also if your had some separate from the rubber like I did, clean any of the contacts that you salvaged from inside the enclosure.
- After cleaning all of the contacts, I set to repairing the copper pads on the rubber buttons. I examined the circuit board and realized that each button has 4 contacts and only one of the four actually has to connect for it to register a button push. (great design by Ford actually, lasted 14 years for us) So in my case, I pried one copper connector each from 2 buttons that had all four, and super-glued them diagonally to the button without any. Since you saved them all from falling into the door (right?) you should be able to just super glue them back into place. If this wasn't an impromptu afternoon project and I wanted to leave my expo in pieces in the garage for a while, I probably could have sourced the tiny copper contacts somehow.
- Now with all the connectors repaired on the rubber buttons, and everything cleaned with contact cleaner, you can re-assemble the keypad enclosure and test. For me, it was instant gratification as I put in my code and was rewarded with a door unlock.
- With the keypad working, I popped it back into the door panel, the outer door panel back into the door, bolted the mirror back into place (again being super careful not to drop the nuts inside the door), put the door back on, and re-assembled all of the various door pieces.
Hindsight being 20/20, I should have made a video or taken some pictures along the way, but hopefully this is descriptive enough to help the next person that comes along and doesn't want to pay the dealership to replace the whole keypad for them.
